A Longitudinal Examination Of Child Abuse, Anxiety, And...

A Longitudinal Examination of: Child Abuse, Anxiety, and Academic Performance Joaquin Gonzalez Humboldt State University Abstract Child abuse is a problem for students’ potential of going to college. Child abuse can create anxiety and academic problems, but it is unclear if such problems can extend to high school students’ future academic careers. A cohort of teenagers will be assessed for child abuse involved before the age of 14 and then followed through young adulthood in an assessment of: abuse in childhood, anxiety, and academic performance. Child survivors of abuse have higher levels of anxiety and are expected to have lower academic fulfillment, it is predicted in this proposed study that they will be less likely to†¦show more content†¦Teens’ academic performance could perhaps be at risk due to anxiety disorders obtained from child abuse. Teens that had high levels of anxiety had poorer self-concepts; fewer achievements and less aptitude in academia, than those who had low levels of anxiety (Kiselica, Baker, Thomas, Reedy, 1994). Parent-child relationships have a maj or influence on a child’s performance in school. It’s probable that children who have negative relationships with their parents, especially those subjected to abuse, are likely to miss out on learning opportunities (Brendgen et al., 2007). Teenagers who had anxiety disorders such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and GAD due to childhood abuse, typically had trouble sleeping, irritability, headaches which subjected them to receiving lower test scores and lower grade point averages, (Hardaway, Larkby, Cornelius, 2014) thus less likely to be admitted to a college. Child Abuse A child abuse survivor possesses a higher risk of forming symptoms of anxiety disorders, such as reoccurring thoughts and fear of authority figures such as teachers or parents (Kim, Trickett, Putnam, 2011), as a result this maladaptive behavior could lead to a decline of academic performance later in a child’s high school/college career. Child abuse for the purposes of this study is defined as bodily or mental maltreatment of a person under the age of